(The following editorial appeared on the San Antonio Express-News website on September 21.)
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Proposals for light rail haven’t faired well in San Antonio. A 1993 undertaking that would have connected downtown to Fiesta Texas — later modified to include service to the Medical Center, UTSA and Northwest side businesses — ended in acrimony. In 2000, voters demolished a proposed half-cent sales tax to build a larger light-rail system at a cost of $1.5 billion.
At the head of both those efforts was County Judge Nelson Wolff. Now Wolff is back a third time.
And while skeptics abound, his approach is right. The timing may be as well.
Few people accurately anticipated San Antonio’s explosive growth over the past decade. Fewer still understood how greatly that growth would exceed the city’s and county’s ability to compete for increasingly tight state and federal funds for new road construction.
The results can be seen every morning and evening on major thoroughfares. Meanwhile, San Antonio’s growth shows no signs of abating. And a proliferation of road building dollars isn’t anywhere on the horizon.
In these circumstances, every opportunity to increase the capacity for transportation needs to be explored and exploited when feasible and in the public interest. Public-private partnerships, toll roads, bus rapid transit and, yes, light rail must be on the table.
Wolff’s new proposal would take advantage of the same Union Pacific line that was at the center of the failed effort 15 years ago, running from south of downtown to Leon Springs.
But much has changed along those 18 miles of track since 1993, when gasoline was selling for $1.05 a gallon.
The tourism and retail industries have mushroomed with downtown enhancements and new attractions such as La Cantera and The Rim. Enrollment at UTSA and its two campuses has skyrocketed. And the South Texas Medical Center has emerged as a major employment area as well as a destination for medical care.
Each of these locations, along with VIA’s planned downtown Multimodal Center, is within walking distance or a short shuttle ride from the Union Pacific line.
How much would it cost to buy or lease the right of way from Union Pacific, build stations along the route to serve commuters and visitors or actually run a light-rail system? Wolff has appointed a blue-ribbon transportation task force to tackle these questions. And if the panel is wise, it will swiftly move to involve the public and neighborhood organizations in the evaluation process.
One light-rail line will not solve San Antonio’s transportation problems. But at the right price, a line that links the city’s major tourist, retail, higher education, health care and employment facilities can be part of the solution. Every light-rail passenger is one less driver stuck in gridlock.
Critics may dismiss Wolff’s third exploration of light rail as a foolish venture. But given today’s realities, it would be foolish to overlook the potential offered by the Union Pacific line.